26 Jun 2015

Bye, Bye Raheem! The signing of Robert Firmino means that Sterling is now basically redundant at Anfield, and I have no doubt that he will be forgotten about five minutes into the Firmino's first game for Liverpool. Man City and Chelsea are reportedly fighting it our for Sterling, but Reds legend John Aldridge has warned prospective clubs that The Mercenary will probably end up as an 'expensive mistake'.

"Man City’s owners have sanctioned a final offer [for Sterling] of £40m in cash, with bonuses that will push the deal closer to the £50m Liverpool are demanding"

In his column for Sunday World this week, Aldo labelled Sterling a 'troublesome character', and argued that spending £50m on Sterling is a 'huge gamble'. He noted:

"City will have to hope Sterling develops because they could be looking at an expensive mistake if he fails to hit the ground running when the pressure is on next season".

Is Sterling worth that much? No chance. Should Liverpool accept the offer? Absolutely.

£50m for a player with seven league goals last season is daylight robbery, and even with QPR's 25% kickback, and Firmino's transfer fee, Liverpool will still come out ahead (for once).

No matter how The Mercenary's fans spin it, Aldo is right: spending £30-£50m on Sterling is a giant gamble, and there's no guarantee that he'll be a success at the Etihad (or Stamford Bridge).

Aldo also sounded the following note of caution:

"I've watched Sterling develop and he always looked like a classy player in the making, but I’m sure Aaron Lennon and Shaun Wright-Phillips looked just as good when they burst through the ranks".

It's an obvious, almost cliched comparison, but it's a good one; the Premier League is littered with young players who got too big for their boots and followed the money, and like Rodwell, Sinclair, Zaha et al, Sterling is on a similar path to career destruction.

Of course, it's entirely possible that Sterling will surprise everyone and go on to be a superstar at City or Chelsea, but I can't see that happening. The pressure and competition is too intense, and if The Mercenary goes 17-games without a goal (as he did for LFC last season), he'll be summarily consigned to the bench.

At Liverpool, despite the regular goal droughts, Rodgers kept Sterling in the team, mainly because the Reds had no other attacking players in the squad who were fit for purpose. That has changed now, and Sterling is in for a rude awakening if he thinks that City et al will cut him similar slack.

After a week of good news, the optimism is slowly returning to Anfield, and I look forward to the cherry on the cake: the sale of Sterling, and the flagrant, unrepentant fleecing of Man City or Chelsea.

123 comments:

No matter what other people say, Sterling is a great player and better than the likes of Lennon, Wright-Phillips and Zaha. He won the PFA Young Player of The Year. But he is nowhere near worth 50mil. Even though I don't like him for his greed and attitude, I would wish him the best of luck at Man City, because England are in a desperate need for a world-class player.

Do I detect a note of optimism Jamie.... 'Careful, next thing you'll be getting behind the owners, manager & team & then your articles will become irrelevant to those people who get drawn in by your eternal pessimism and your constant knocking of the above....I suspect though that this article will be seen as a one-off soon and not a more balanced change of direction.... Shame!!!

Liverpool seem to be the masters at selling players for a bloated fee, I just just we then seem to spend that money on absolute dross. But this window we have bought first sold second so it might prove to work out well this time.

I don't know how many of you will remember but about 2 seasons ago he was stalling on his first contract negotiations and threatening to go to arsenal, alarm bells were ringing then!

If City do cough up the money then it is win win for us. Firmino clearly has been signed to replace Sterling. Sterling still has loads of developing to do but at this point Firmino on a completely different level ability wise to Sterling.

This article is a joke. Why calling the kid a mercenary all over your article? Sterling is living Liverpool to win trophies. He doesn't want to end up like Gerard without an EPL trophy. If you think he is not that good then why are you spitting your hate all over? Quite being a sore loser and leave the boy alone.

Well said. He's fast, two footed, a skilful dribbler, great passer and his finishing will improve - he will be a big success at City. £50m is a lot of money, but the real number Liverpool get is £37.5m, which is Firmino plus £8.5m, so not as staggeringly good a deal as a lot of people assume.

Thats why you ain't running a big company. Sterling is a pricey asset. He should be handled with care. No reason to ship him out based on emotional reasoning. FSG won't budge for irrational, emotional arguments.They pay or shut up.

With citeh closing in on pogba, i don't think they come back for Sterling with an improved offer as reported .....theywill also be getting advices from every Conner, It's looks like the ship has sailed.

Who said i don't run a big company? I don't but you didn't know that haha, ye luckily i don't run LFC but as a fan of a football club first and foremost emotion drives everything to do with my Affiliation with the club. I dont support Liverpool for their nice business model or their balanced accounts. But ye agree FSG do well with selling players like i said.

How many non EU players are we allowed? I thought it was 3, which given your team yesterday included Lucas, Firmino and PC, perhaps that's why we are after Benteke rather than Bacca? Personally I'd let Lucas go and sign Bacca, but that might well be the choice Rodgers and co are facing.

Wow how much does this smack of a woman scorned? 17 game without a goal? Rodger kept sterling in the team as he was the best player! The lads the best young prospect in England by far! He's 20 years old ffs! I think some seem to be getting carried away with Firmino who hasn't done much at all either and he's 3 year older and certainly not one of the best young prospects in Germany. If City or whoever don't come back for Sterling, Rodger's (or whoever is running the show) is going to have problem as that best young talent in English football, make no doubts that's what he is like it or not is going to enter his penultimate season without a new contract meaning his value drops every day, so they could have taken £35m with £5m in add ons may mean they'll end up with £10m less which would be stupidity. The press are reporting City are close to signing Pogba at £60m are they going to come back for Sterling? I

Jk, lets not be emotionally driven. A 4231 formation with coutinho, firminho and sterling as 3 behind studge/bacca is mouth watering. sell coates 4M, borini 8M, lambert 3M, ballotelli 10M, total 25M and buy bacca. we could do a suarez on sterling and force him to play a season; sign a new contract and sell him for 40M next season. we cant compete by replacing firminho with sterling. chelsea has hazard, fabregas and willian. man U has depay, mata and di maria. arsenal has sanchez, ozil and carzola. we need a strong trio!!!

sterling has pace and still potential, however he does not have a footballing brain and is not an intelligent player. You can coach players to improve on their skills, but you cant coach footballing intelligence. Thats why he will never be a great player, no matter who he plays for.

Only problem is, he wouldn't sign a new contract and would just run it down, unless of course he had a change of heart. I say sell him and move on, reckon this spending is taking into account us getting a large fee for him.

That would really put a damper on things imo. So we start off with Milner, Ings and Bogdan (I'm not even counting the Charlton kid because it will be another two years before we maybe see him again) which is hardly exciting. EL material at best. We then, out of the blue, sign a somewhat more exciting player (yes I know he's just been called up for Brazil but so was Rafael Scheidt), possibly follow that up with Clyne which is again hardly earth shattering but still an improvement on what is there at less than what Johnson cost us way back when. If we continue with these type of signings, it wouldn't be too shabby but if we follow it up with Benteke, all the good of this week is gone in one 32 or however many million bang for me.

Sterling has potential to be a good player, but if someone is willing to pay upwards of £40 million then we should sell. He is easily replaceable with that money, and we've kind of already replaced him anyway.

BR: "I want Benteke"Others: "Are you sure Brodge?"BR: "As sure as I was about Balotelli - Benteke is wonderful"Others: "But isn't Bacca a much better deal at less money?"BR: "I want Benteke"Others: "But isn't Bacca also much more versatile and better suited to the type of game you want to play?"BR: "Eum? Who is the football genius here? I want Benteke"Others: "We're not sure Brodge, what if he doesn't work out?"BR: "Then that's your fault"Others: "Ok...we'll sign him. But if he doesn't work out, it's your head Brodge"BR: "Nah, I'll stick it on my assistants"Others: "Why are you so adamant?"BR: "Because Citeh are about our worse transfer failure title from us and there is only one record I kept in tact during the last three years. There is no way I'll be giving that one up too."

If Sterling is a real England citizen,i can admit it that he may be like Lennon,Walcott and Phillip,for its a habit of English players to flop at such early age.but now you never know He is from Jamaica.but that amount is too much,30 million pound may be the actual price for him.

Sometimes im very happy of Liverpool way of spending the money they get each an every season,First they oversale Torres to Chelsea but the cash was wasted on Carlo,then they oversale Suarez to Barcelona then they went on signing Balloteli and Lambert.

Keeping him should definitely not be off the table. He's not that bad. He's just not 50 million good either. And if we keep him at his 35k a week wage then there's no harm in it. Or, I could see FSG do another Suarez, keep him, increase his wages to something acceptable and put a release clause of 60 million in his contract should he, by some miracle, actually turn into a 60 million pound player. That said, himself, Firmino and Cou behind a decent striker would make life quite difficult for many an opponent.

I dont think he will be huge mistake, i think Benteke has the ability to consistently grab about 15 goals a season in PL. he is not a bad player, he just isnt most suitable striker out there concidering how we play.

he is big strong lad, surprisingly fast, decent first touch. what he does (unlike balo) is that he actually tries to get behind defence on occasion.

and on the form Balo is atm, as talented as he is, even Carra is better finisher.

So you would hold on to this pricey asset for another year? De-valuing him by another 15-20mil over that year. Spend time and energy over the next 12 months trying to motivate a disruptive influence to perform at a level he did not in the last twelve months, instead of using the other assets at your disposal to get arguable the same, if not better results, over the next 12 months and turning your pricey asset into 40+ million pounds in cash?....

That's a hell of a gamble for a player who's agent has stated that he wouldn't sign a new contract at Liverpool for 900k a week (not sure Liverpool would be wise to test that statement but we all understand the sentiment). There is absolutely no guarantee what sort of effort you're going to get from Sterling if you force him to stay, or what sort of effect he will have on the rest of the squad. Logic says, you've got a fair offer on the table, you've bought one replacement and have another potential one in Ibe, why not just take the moral high ground and let the player go. I'm sure Liverpool would have snapped the hand off any European club offering that money and I get why they don't want to be seen as a club that players leave for other Premiership clubs, but that is the reality with Sterling.

I'm gonna say this now, read back months ago, way before we even heard of the Sterling contract rumbles, andyou'll see that I have always thought Sterling highly over rated...He was then, and he is now... What I believe has nothing to do with sour grapes or ill feelings towards a bloke who disrespected our club.. No, He can't cross, he's selfish, he's predictable, and he couldn't hit himself in the face let alone score from two yards..... He has a seriuosly bad habit of holding onto the ball far too long when there are better placed teammates on for a pass, and more often than not, because of that, he runs himself into a crowd of defenders with nowhere to go..... He is poor on his weaker foot, to the point that defenders know that he will always drive towards the touch line, but always cut back inside... These are facts.. Not made up claims to belittle the kid.... But, he is still a kid with plenty of time to evolve his game... I just didn't get the impression over the last season and a half, that he was actually learning from his mistakes, or that he was even being pulled up by the coaches about his play...Would I rather he stay? Yes!... He is definately a player that exudes potential, but so does Ibe, and Ibe has more to his game than Sterling... He can take on defenders and succeed, and he has an awesome shot on him too....... If somebody is willing to pay anywhere near £50m for him, I would ask where they would like him delivered to...safe in the knowledge that we have Ibe, and a few others coming through the academy that could excel to levels equivilant to, or above that of Sterling....

It was thre foreign players 20 odd years ago... Now, it's as many as you can stomach.... As long as you have the minimum number of homegrown players in your PL squad... which is 8 in a 25 man PL squad... Soon to be rising to 10...

Lol, the bitterness coming from that article is something else. I know liverpool fans are living in hope and delusion that sterling will fail when he moves but the reality will probably be that he will play a key part in helping whichever team he moves to win more trophies and medals while liveerpool still languish round 6/7 positions and trophyless

Can't wait for this deal to happen. Wish also said nothing he's only saying what most of us are thinking but he's in a position to be heard. I think sterling is more pennant than ronaldo he's still missing sitters 3 seasons into his first team career. He's not agood finisher and II'm not sure he eever will be. With Clyne hopefully in as wellthe signing are looking good. Wonder who will be sold . Would love to see Allen replaced with bent newor Iill er mending. Keep lucks he will help firming settle.

No good replacing one good player with another, we need to improve not maintain, wouldn't be against the idea of him staying but Frimino is not a replacement, he's an addition, still need to replace him if he goes.

I think you should also consider potentially disrupting effect of having an unhappy player in the dressing room and the potentially negative publicity and distractions that come out of Sterling Staying. Especially if he is benched with the Euro championship coming. Having said that I don't mind him staying, as long as he agrees to be professional about it.

By most peoples standards, Sterling and his agent, haven't entirely covered themselves in glory in the way they have handled the player's desire to leave. But, regardless of how they have behaved, the player has insisted that he wants to leave and so, by accepting that under the circumstances, and accepting that a disgruntled player is better out of the club than in, the club would be seen as taking the moral high ground by transferring him."Losing 15 million a year to have him play for us" - He doesn't want to play for you."Is 30 million a lot of money to FSG" - You bet it is.Having a player, who by Aldridge's current (but open to change) assessment is "troublesome" may well prove to be more costly than 30 million. Suarez didn't want to stay, and didn't stay.If he goes, it will be on terms that are acceptable to both buyer and seller.

Absolutely agree GR. Whatever you think of Suarez as a person, as a player he is 100% every time and I can understand why Liverpool didn't want to lose him. But even with a player who they felt wouldn't let them down, despite not wanting to be there, they recognised he wanted to go and so took the deal. With Sterling they surely cannot believe that he'll be busting a gut for them next year if they make him stay. He might, in which case I'll hold my hands up and say I was wrong, but I don't see it happening. So why would FSG consider keeping him and losing millions of pounds?

I assume you're being sarcastic given that telling a young, impressionable lad, he could be "as good as Messi and Ronaldo" seems a bizarre way to keep his feet on the ground. Similarly, if you're trying to sell someone 'high', then calling him "troublesome" and an "expensive mistake" would appear to be a bit of a 'Ratner moment'

You write about an expensive mistake when they've signed him ;-) The Lacazette rumours have resurfaced again and I still have my heart set on Lacazette as he would be the perfect striker for us. But his asking price is very high at around £35m but if rumours are to be believed Benteke is around the £30m mark and in my opinion I would find the extra for Lacazette somehow as I have no doubt he would be the perfect fit and a top four finish in my opinion would be achievable, it's a risk worth taking as at worst all Lyon and Lacazette could say is no and the same applies to Higuain or Aubameyang. I also still yearn for Arda Turan to one day pull on an LFC shirt I have done for a very long time aaw..dreams.......yawn and wake up! I also like the look of Yarmolenko - Dynamo Kiev he's a superb player. Kevin Volland - Hoffenhiem, Timo Werner - VFB Stuggart there are options out there...Aim high I say as nothing ventured nothing gained, especially considering the market hasn't officially opened yet so time is on our side.

I hope not mate it's a pointless signing for us as he just doesn't fit, the majority of supporters see it from a mile off! Bacca would be better suited but my no.1 target is still lacazette we need a striker capable of beating a defender with pace and trickery and moving into the channels left with the pass and move style we adopt. Bacca does it better than Benteke but Bacca is not without risk either in my opinion, if I was Rodgers I would pull out all stops to bring in Lacazette, maybe offer around £20m and try and throw in the likes of Borini, Alberto and Llori as they are not going to be used enough to warrant them being at the club ...Am full of ideas and theories today in all reality it's just my opinion but I still like to think we could still have a shot at Lacazette if we make an offer tempting enough.

Sterling's a fantastic young attacker. What he does for a player his age is really exceptional, his movement, his team-work, his effectiveness in 1-1s, his progressive approach to the game. He's virtually a complete forward. Obviously his finishing lags behind the rest of his game but it's very unusual for a youngster to score much -- that tends to be the last thing that comes. Professional football is firstly about athleticism, secondly about knowing what positions to take up when and implementing tactics, then thirdly having the technique to execute skills consistently. In that order. Sterling has athleticism and intelligence in bucketloads and his technique is improving year on year. Everyone says he's great to work with, applies himself and has an appetite to improve. So he's going to get better and better. We will be losing a very, very promising player if he goes.

Personally I hope we keep him, that he signs a new contract and stays on at the club, proves himself on the national and continental stage with Liverpool and England, and then can move on to fulfill his ambitions later in his career with no hard feelings. This contract wrangle would all be water under the bridge in six months time if Sterling can use the negative energy to motivate himself and kick on to improve. I don't know why things have got so emotionally charged over this player, why the club, the agent, the player, and the fans have behaved in this extraordinary way, and why the fans in particular have allowed themselves to be manipulated to this extent. It's all a bit puerile and undignified if you ask me.

To suggest that Sterling did nothing is taking it a bit too far IMO. Let's not forget that he was given the job to lead the Liverpool attack because all the other strikers signed over the past three seasons, bar Sturridge, are just not good enough.

Stats are not the be all and end all but compare it Sterling to Firmino then there is not much between the two. In fact, Sterling holds up quite well.

Sterling still has a way to go before he can be called a complete forward, I 100% agree. The expectations of players is just ridiculous at times. Just like with Kovacic, he is still a kid and was being hailed sort of (not entirely) as a replacement for Gerrard.

It would have been best though for Sterling to develop himself at a club life LFC but the damage by both player and club has been done. Keeping him now would be a mistake.

Fawning? I think not. An odd choice of word with which to describe a conditional assessment of a player's tactical aptitude. He can play anywhere in the forward line, can pass, cross, and beat a man on either side anywhere on the pitch, on the move or from a standing start. Virtually a complete forward, as I said. Just let down by his finishing.

Your judgement of the player is too moralising for my blood. That doesn't really interest me. As a footballer he's a very exciting prospect at the very least -- and already an accomplished player. I'll be sorry to see him go and I've enjoyed watching him come through to perform an integral role in the most exciting Liverpool team most of our fans have ever seen.

I would probably take an opinion between you and Jamie. I think he lacks more than just shots on target, and that you are judging him based on his future potential. Having said that I believe has the chance to make it, it would be him.

The angers is mostly fueled by his agents insults to Liverpool/player and "900K". I would personally consider it as part of fair contract negotiations. The club is willing to give X he wants Y, etc. etc. Either a deal will happen or will be sold. It happens almost every year with Rooney :).

Now my feelings are who does Sterling thinks he is. no one is better than the club. I mean better players like Torres, Suarez, and Gerrard decided to leave Liverpool, You never saw them or their agents grab headlines like that.